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By: Father Geoffrey A. Brooke Jr. (CNS)

Originally Appeared in : 9825-12/6/18

Be watchful and Be alert! are two traditional spiritual commands often heard by Catholics during the Advent season in preparation for the birth of Christ at Christmas. To the contemporary Catholic, they can also present somewhat of a conundrum.

Being watchful and alert both imply a void, an emptiness, something lacking, an expectation to be fulfilled. On the other hand, the Advent season in today’s society seems to be an overflow of noise and images, these days all about Christmas.

By: Nancy De Flon (CNS)

Originally Appeared in : 9825-12/6/18

Advent is a season of expectation, of waiting for promises to be fulfilled — God’s promises, to our Israelite ancestors in the faith and to us. Isaiah promises the birth of a child named Emmanuel, “God with us.”

The prophet Malachi foretells the rising of the sun of righteousness (note those words in “Hark the Herald Angels Sing”). Zechariah prophesies that his son, John, will be the “prophet of the Most High.” In Nazareth a young virgin becomes pregnant under puzzling circumstances.

By: Carol Zimmermann (CNS)

Originally Appeared in : 9824-11/22/18

BALTIMORE (CNS)--The gathering of U.S. bishops in Baltimore Nov. 12-14 on the heels of the clergy abuse scandal that hit the Catholic Church this past summer had echoes of the 2002 bishops’ meeting in Dallas, which took place just months after the Church was also reeling from the clergy sexual abuse crisis that made headlines in The Boston Globe.

But the two meetings reflected different times and also ended with different results.

By: Shemaiah Gonzalez (CNS)

Originally Appeared in : 9824-11/22/18

Advent, the four-week period preceding Christmas, is a time to slow down as we wait in hopeful expectation for Christ’s coming. It’s a time to take stock of what’s important in our lives, casting away extra commitments and wasted energy we’ve added throughout the year.

Here are a few traditions that an individual or a family can practice to slow down and draw closer to Christ during Advent.

By: Mark Pattison

Originally Appeared in : 9823-11/8/18

Washington (CNS)-- The U.S. bishops will consider endorsing the sainthood cause of Sister Thea Bowman, the granddaughter of slaves and the only African-American member of the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, who transcended racism to leave a lasting mark on Catholic life in the United States in the late 20th century.

By: Moisés Sandoval (CNS)

Originally Appeared in : 9823-11/8/18

Recently I was on the web trying to reserve a Yellow Cab to take me to the airport. I was unsuccessful because the technology that would identify me as a human being and not a robot was turned off on the taxi company’s server. I finally gave up and telephoned an immigrant from India who has a cab and had taken me there before. He gladly did it. The world still works best through human relationships.

By: Cecilia A. Moore (CNS)

Originally Appeared in : 9823-11/8/18

From the 1920s through the 1960s more than 300,000 African-Americans across the country chose to enter into communion with the Roman Catholic Church. Their choices to become Catholic set them apart from most African-American Christians who were members of Baptist, Methodist, Pentecostal and Holiness traditions.